Marissa Mayer, Telecommuting and The Business Woman Reaction

by Tinu Abayomi-Paul on February 27, 2013

The top story I’ve been watching this week was the decision by Marissa Meyer, CEO of Yahoo, recently transplanted from Google, to end telecommuting at Yahoo by telling remote workers to come in or quit by June.

I’ve been slow to form an opinion on the matter for several reasons.

First, I know how hard it is to make difficult business decisions that affect more than just you. You can’t always do what’s popular. And sometimes doing what you perceive to be right, or the least harmful, makes you the bad guy.

Second, I work from home a lot, and get much more done than I do in an office environment in the two companies I own now.

So I know my opinion is a biased one: remote working (mostly) works for me.

In short, I want to take my personal bias out of it, and look at the situation based on the information I have, rather than the feelings I have first. Of course, I later add human emotion back into the equation and reevaluate again because I’m a person, not a robot. As are the affected and reactive population.

In so doing, I’ve come to the conclusion that the backlash isn’t all about whether what happened was what is best for Yahoo! or not.

It’s the fear that a prominent company making this kind of policy change is a threat to American telecommuters.

In other countries, particularly in Europe, the role of work in life is embedded in the culture. Time off is often more lenient, productivity is valued above being physically present. It has been for years and a major company changing its mind is not likely to sway other business owners.

In the US, policy changes at major companies often ripple out to other companies. Big companies are sometimes the test beds for ideas like unlimited time off, email for office use, having a web site or a blog, or telecommuting. Smaller companies watch them to see if the experiment will succeed or fail.

When there is a perceived failure at a prominent company of a benefit employees want, given this climate, of course there will be panic.

We All Know What Opinions Are Like – Here’s Mine

Now that a couple of days have passed, and I’ve had time to actually gather some information, I have come to the conclusion that even if this was the right move for Yahoo, the implementation was faulty.

(Of course, my opinion and my fellow bloggers or social media users is likely of little consequence to whether Yahoo! will reverse its position, regardless of whether our opinions are correct. However, the alternative idea of remaining silent when these kinds of issues hit so close to home, seems counter-intuitive, even hypocritical.

How can you tell people their voice matters, and then not speak? Stranger things have happened than bloggers being able to use our collective power to cause change. Back to the issue at hand.)

I started my research by simply reading the Yahoo! memo leaked to All Things Digital, and I could see why it caused outrage to those who may be sensitive to the issue of telecommuting.

I agree that her version would have caused a much smaller uproar, perhaps none at all. Then I wonder if alternative solutions were pursued.

I also noted that the memo in question came from the head of human resources, not from Meyer directly. Of course she had to have made the decision. But is it possible that she didn’t sign off on the phrasing in the memo? Is it likely that Yahoo never meant to indite telecommuting as a general practice?

Surely, if there are people abusing the telecommuting privilege, they should be let go. But what about the people who it is working for, who are adding value to the company, perhaps even because of telecommuting rather than in spite of it?

Of course, as you’ll read in one of the stories below, the prevailing suspicion is that Meyer did this to force people to quit instead of firing them. Which also seems lazy, short-sighted, and ultimately bad for Yahoo if this is true.

It’s bound to throw out the baby with the bath water – there are likely great telecommuters who work better independently, adding value to the company. Instead of looking across the entire company and firing the appropriate people, cutting off an entire arm that may only be dead in the fingers … it just seems barbaric and backwards.

My opinion, as much as it relies on the available data to draw conclusions, still assumes a lot of things that may not be true. And this is where I believe some of the rhetoric surrounding the issue needs to be checked against the strictest view of the facts at hand.

Meyer may be making similar changes in the rest of the company we don’t know about. There’s an article where a former Yahoo telecommuter came forward to state that things were not efficient remotely.

Telecommuting may be bad for Yahoo’s culture, the way they’re doing it.

Still, even if time shows that Meyer took the correct action to right the company, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a former Yahoo consumer.

The only one of their products I use now is Flickr, and only because I can sign in with Google. For about two years I kept asking for help to reset my password – something I have to do quite often as someone who basically lives on the web – with no answer.

Public perception does count for something. But perhaps Yahoo’s public isn’t partly made up of tech consumers any longer – people like us who blog, use Flickr, or social media may not be central to their audience, and perhaps never were.

Below are the articles I read for your reference – it seems relatively easy to find negative press on the topic. The neutral and positive slants offer some great points, though I disagree with most of their conclusions.

Definitely worth a read if telecommuting affects your life, as an employer or as an employee. Without this discourse, Yahoo’s change in policy might have been taken at face value and been the start of a tide which rippled into the blind and abrupt end of telecommuting across the US.

Instead, as one of the articles below cleverly posits – the fact that such a well known company made what so many view as an obvious mistake has opened dialogue on a hidden trend – that of companies reversing the decision to telecommute after trying it and failing.

Perhaps the result of this open dialogue will leave all parties better prepared for this circumstance in the future.

Yahoo,Telecommuting & The Marissa Mayer Reactions

This has been a fascinating news story to watch. It was truly a struggle not to rush to judgement – and taking the time to observe all viewpoints led me to intriguing discoveries. Hope that you’ll take the time to take in all the various perspectives, especially if you’re a business owner, employee

Some background on Marissa Mayer.

If you observe some of the circumstances and expectations of this most recent Yahoo CEO, it helps you understand why the reaction to her move was so sharp. There are a lot of expectations and assumptions made about her on the basis of her being a female CEO, fair or not.

Mercopress

Who is Yahoo’s New CEO Marissa Mayer?wsjdigitalnetwork

Marissa Mayer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMarissa Ann Mayer is an American business executive. As of 2013 she is the president and CEO of Yahoo!. Previously, she was a long-time…

The Story – Yahoo CEO Bans Telecommuting.

The way this news was discovered, the execution of the mandate, as well as speculation as to its intent is clearly affecting the way the news is being received.

"Physically Together": Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe MoreCourtesy of a plethora of very irked Yahoo employees, here is the internal memo sent to the company about a new rule rolled out today by …

Yahoo chief bans working from homeSurfing the web from at home might be just what Yahoo&#39;s chief Marissa Mayer wants her audience to do – but she has banned employees o…

Follow Up News Stories on Meyer’s Decision

Is Yahoo’s work-from-home ban a stealth layoff?Yahoo’s ( YHOO) employee policy change that bans working from home could be a stealth layoff, employment experts speculated Tuesday. Tell…

Is Yahoo’s Work Policy All That Bad?forbes

Ex-Yahoos Confess: Marissa Mayer Is Right To Ban Working From HomeLast Friday, Yahoo HR boss Jackie Reses sent out a memo telling all remote employees that they needed to find a way to be working in an o…

The Truth About Marissa Mayer&#39;s Surprise Deal With Google (GOOG, YHOO …When Mayer quit Google in July for the job at Yahoo, she didn&#39;t do it in the friendliest way. A source tells us she gave Google only …

Why Yahoo&#39;s telecommuting ban isn&#39;t a surpriseCreate Portfolio or Cancel Already have a portfolio? Log In. Cali Williams Yost, author of &#39;Tweak It- Make What Matters to You Happen…

Why Marissa Mayer&#39;s ban on remote working at Yahoo could …1 day ago … Yahoo says that its new edict banning remote working is necessary to build the right kind of culture. But how is making t…

Reactions to the news from Yahoo

I was initially going to separate this into people for and against the decision. But it was much more enlightening when I meandered through positive, neutral and negative reactions and press stories. Hope you’ll have the same experience.

Hey, Yahoo: Proof That Working From Home Works: According to CEO Marissa Mayer, telecommuting costs "sp… http://bit.ly/13YoJUC (Inc.)Matthew Levy

The Yahoo! MistakeIs Yahoo! making a mistake by banning telecommuting? This decision by Marissa Mayer has sparked a controversy that has gained a snowball …

Marissa Mayer Is No FoolWho do Yahoo’s "work@home" telecommuting champions think they’re kidding? Marissa Mayer is no fool. She didn’t take over as Yahoo’s CEO b…

What Does Marissa Mayer Think We Do All Day? Employees Do the Same IN the Office : MOMeo Magazine for Work-at-Home Moms: Business Tools | Parenting Advice | Mom Lifestyle Tips | Mom Blog | Mom ForumMarissa Mayer, like many suspicious CEOs, doesn’t like remote work. To be specific, remote work done by work-at-home employees since I as…

- PhD in Parenting – Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg: When Executive Women Keep Other Women DownSunday, February 24, 2013 This week, two executive women made some pretty questionable business moves. These moves were not only baffling…

Telecommuting: Connecticut Reactions To Yahoo’s Ban

Related News and Discussion About Telecommuting

Of particular fascination for me was the widening of the debate that surrounds telecommuting. Many reinforced the success story by presenting statistics and studies. Others took the opportunity to discuss how telecommuting could work. One even asked why no one is mad at Google, when they don’t allow telecommuting either.

Yahoo! Letter: Was Their Communications Team Consulted?By now, many of you have likely seen (and had some emotion about) the letter that was sent to Yahoo! employees regarding their new policy…

Survey Says: Despite Yahoo Ban, Most Tech Companies Support Work-From-Home for EmployeesLast week, a fierce debate erupted over a range of social networks and in the media about a story we posted on Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s …

Opinion: Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer just killed the telecommuting lifestyle buzzDear Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Who made you boss of the "No More Working from Home Party?" Who are you, the CEO of a once cutting-edge Sil…

What IS the Right Culture?Normally, it’s hard not to read articles on workplace culture. The Yahoo! mandate to end telework and return to the workplace has sparked…

Does Telecommuting Reduce Employee Collaboration and Creativity?Does Telecommuting Reduce Employee Collaboration and Creativity? I just finished reading an article that described the latest thinking at…